


Boy's Love and Yaoi as a Feminist Movement: Female Sexual Liberation Through Explicit Male-Male Relationships

by KitsuneItsuki



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Bishounen, Boy's Love, Essays, Fandom, Feminism, Other, Sexual Liberation, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:08:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21782683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitsuneItsuki/pseuds/KitsuneItsuki
Summary: This essay dives into the origin of Boy's Love and Yaoi and explains how the creation of the genre was a feminist movement that lead to the sexual liberation of millions of women worldwide.
Relationships: None
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Boy's Love and Yaoi as a Feminist Movement: Female Sexual Liberation Through Explicit Male-Male Relationships

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for checking out this essay ~~ I hope it is as interesting to you as it was for me to research.
> 
> I did not discuss much in regards to LGBTQ+ in relationship to BL and Yaoi within this essay intentionally, it is not the focus of the content. I would love to eventually write a follow up on BL and Yaoi and its effect on LGBTQ+ circles. Feel free to comment below on your thoughts, I would love to discuss this with you!

Since the 1960s introduction of male-male romantic plot lines in Japanese culture, there has been an eventual worldwide movement of homosexual media that at its core is much more than erotic imagery. While at face value the sexually explicit visuals seem nothing more than pornographic content, the movement itself is rooted in female sexual liberation as well as questioning societal heteronormative constructs and ideals. Boy’s Love is created primarily by females and is intended for a primarily female audience. Currently 78-80% of western Boy’s Love consumers are female and Japanese consumers are higher than that. In this essay I will discuss three points of Boy’s Love that make it inherently a feminist movement. The first being the construct of female sexuality in Japan as well as the west and how a non-female curated world removes the female viewer from their own guilt. The second being the  _ bishounen (beautiful boy)  _ in yaoi and how the phallus is deconstructed from a symbol of power into one of pleasure. The final being how fandom spaces curated by Boy’s Love and the preceding exchange of media leads to female sexual liberation.

  
  


**The Guilt Laced Path: Female Sexuality in a Suppressed Society**

In a society built on strict Confucian ideals, the female in Japanese society leads a path wrenched with guilt, shame, and loss of power in regards to her sexuality. The hierarchy of power within the household begins with the father, then the son, and lastly the mother. The female in this type of society as well as most societies (excluding many pre-modern societies) is suppressed and often is a powerless figure. Her value is based on her reproductive and maternal ability and not in the value of her individual self. 

Due to this, females often do not have the space or ability to view themselves in regards to their sexuality in a free, liberating way without feeling extreme pressures of guilt. The role of the mother is one instilled in a negative way by the way the patriarchy holds power of the female form and her expectations for child birth. In this type of society there is no room for sexual freedom for women, nor is there is a place for a healthy exploration of taboo fantasy. 

This is one of the primary reasons why Boy’s Love and yaoi was curated. Moto Hagio,( _ The Poe Clan _ 1972-1976) who was a pioneer of the genre states, “Yaoi was necessary for girls who lost their own place to create a new place for them in Japanese society.” By removing the female form from love stories and explicit fantasy content, women nullify themselves from the material. It in turn gives them the freedom to explore far beyond the restrictions placed on them by social norms of female sexuality. The absence of women in the stories allows a female viewer to explore sexually charged topics without the fear of motherhood and patriarchy. In this fantasy world of male-male relationships women are able to reconstruct themselves in a free form outside of society’s limitations.

Historically when women are portrayed in sexual positions in a pornographic or otherwise explicit context, they are almost never in a position of power. This becomes something difficult for women to cope with as sexual beings, it is a form of oppression that exists in the majority of heterosexual erotic content. The female can find it very difficult to remove herself from the position of subservience in the media they are consuming. Even female-female content can be difficult for women to consume due to the implications that they are still being subjected to the masculine gaze. Also, they are unable to often remove themselves from the image of the female body and its association in societies oppressive rules.

Netusme Shobo wrote in their 1999 essay,  _ Phantasma of Yaoi _ , that “Women have an active need for a subject stand in for themselves, they are selecting an escape from womanhood itself.” This is where yaoi shines as a beacon for sexual liberation; the exclusion of the female form allows women to place themselves in the position of the character freely without guilt or fear of repercussions. With the male characters there is no risk of motherhood, no shame in sexual activity before marriage, no risk of being ostracized due to the sexual taboos that are specifically placed on only women. It removes female self-internalization and allows for freedom of expression for both the creator and the consumer. 

_ “The boy characters could say what I want to say pretty easily.” - Moto Hagio. _

  
  


**Androgynous Lovers: The Phallic Power Removed**

Bishounen, or beautiful boys, is a staple in the curation of Boy’s Love. Regardless of the character’s personality type or sexual preference the stereotype reigns true of the unrealistically effeminate man in yaoi called bishounen. While yaoi has somewhat moved beyond the stereotype of bishounen, in its intent and origin this was a main factor within the genre. The portrayal of men in yaoi leans on a fantasy portrayal of feminine men with stylish or long hair, thin, lean bodies, little to no body hair, long fingers and limbs, large eyes, and dainty, pointed chins and noses. It is not unusual for the characters to dress in feminine styled clothing and present themselves in non-masculine ways. The bishounen exists for two very particular reasons.

The first reason is for the feminization of the masculine in fantasy to remove the patriarchal power from the phallus. Through plot devices it is common for the males in Boy’s Love to act effeminate, calling their anus crude feminine names, having clear sexual position preferences that are meant to humiliate the masculine ego (such as a small effeminate boy ‘topping’ a larger older man), and often how the men in the plot lines will be compared to women; ex: “Your face is cuter than any woman’s/just like a woman’s”.

Satou Masaki a gay activist/civil servant/drag queen heavily criticized the above stating that yaoi because of this had a skewed image of gay men, and the need to portray them as handsome and beautiful was harmful to real life gay men. This is absolutely correct in the fact that in regards to real men it is a terrible representation of homosexual relationships. But yaoi was never intended to be representative of real men, real relationships, or real situations in the slightest. Yaoi is meant to be used a way to cope with living in a primarily heterosexual world in which women are subjected to consistantly becoming the underdog in every sexual situation. 

This brings us back to the first point; in a fantasy setting the feminization of men is effective in removing what women commonly associate with men - power. The phallus as a power symbol gets reduced in yaoi to a symbol of pleasure, nothing more. It becomes a means to an end to achieve sexual pleasure and not something that is proof of authority. By placing projections of their own femininity on masculine characters it challenges sexism and creates content that is more comfortable for women in a sexually repressed society to consume.

The second point being; the feminization of men is so powerful in yaoi many creators state that they attempt to create a “third sex/gender”. The beautiful 2D depiction of bodies can be thought of an attempt for a gender outside of the binary which in turn breaks free from the bigender world. By creating characters like the ones in Boy’s Love, they create worlds where we can live unaffected by rigid societal ideals of what gender might be.

Kimura Midori, a scholar, states, “Androgynous bodies of males characters displays girls longing for physchomogically complex subjectives that exceed conventional gender roles - these boys physical bodies retain androgynous beauty in order to internalize a vanishing girlhood.” By looking beyond conventional gender roles and stereotypical gendered body forms creators can attempt a “third gender/sex” in which becomes comforting and accessible for women to view in an erotic context. 

_ “I made the work not about gay men at all, but about the liberation of female sexuality.” -Takeyama (Kaze to ki no) _

**The Power of Fandom: Sexual Liberation in Safe Places**

Within the media sensation that is Boy’s Love or yaoi, there came a wave of fanatics of the material. Content creators like, illustrators, writers, voice actors, cosplayers, animators and comic book creators, all ended up joining together in groups worldwide to collaborate and exchange material. In regards to the content in Boy’s Love and yaoi, it was an especially important phenomenon due to the explicit nature of the plot lines. In Japan there had not been a public space for women to exchange ideas on sexuality and fantasy available while being accepted by their fellow companions. 

With Boy’s Love came the rise of the doujinshi, a fan made and fan published manga. Alongside the doujinshi came fan made magazines, often abbreviated to zine. Zines often have illustrations, writing, and comics in them that pertain to a specific series, movie, novel, or character. Conventions for doujinshi and zines started appearing as early as the mid 1980s in Japan. By the late 1990s conventions were similarly appearing in the USA after the popularity of ‘slash’ publications (American works of art and literature featuring male/male relationships) appeared and gained popularity as well as media exchange between Japan and the west was more commonplace. 

The biggest of these conventions is called komike (an abbreviation of ‘Comic Market’) and is held twice a year in Tokyo. More than 30,000 groups of creators and around 1 million people attend the event. During each komike gathering, approximately 5 million copies of dōjinshi works are circulated, with sales totalling more than 30 million dollars. Due to the nature of being self published and distributed these doujinshi and fanzines are able to undermine copyright and censorship issues that typically are issues in professionally published works. It is uncommon for copyright issues to occur in doujinshi sales and fanzines even though the works contain popular characters from all types of media. 

Around 1 million people, twice a year, gather to discuss Boy’s Love and yaoi in a safe place where they feel accepted and welcome. Nearly 90% of the people who attend are female, which only draws further to the conclusion that Boy’s Love and yaoi is at its root about female sexual liberation. Women worldwide have forged a unique place for themselves in the heteronormative constraints of their daily social experiences where they can feel safe and free to discuss topics that are otherwise taboo for them.

A point to bring up is why the characters in popular media have been used to frequently within Boy’s Love and yaoi. We must take the time to again look at the surroundings around the feminine person living in a repressed society. Within media it is commonplace to see heterosexual characters that have refined character traits, plot lines, backstories, and goals. Popular series of especially shonen (boys) manga and anime feature strong men who value friendship above all else. The characters have immense emotional depth and strong ties to their friends. Because it is uncommon for shonen to revolve around a romantic plot line and otherwise focuses on friendship and bravery, it is simple to contextually place them in relationships with other characters in the story that they are shown to be platonically intimate. A western example of this that gained popularity is in Star Trek, as early as the 1970s works of fiction revolving around Kirk and Spock’s romantic relationship were being exchanged between women due to the closeness of their canon (in universe) friendship within the series. It conclusively created a way for women to rewrite male characters in a way that actively challenges sexism and lack of well rounded female characters in the stories they love.

With the rise of the internet exchange of doujinshi, literature, and other works of art have only become more accessible and prevalent. Fan groups for particular series can gather on safe online places and share their fantasies for the characters among each other with ease to create fantasy worlds away from patriarchal structures and the dichotomy of sex and gender. To this day, the base popularity for Boy’s Love and yaoi is vastly female, even if societies restrictions on women have lessened slightly. There is still an overwhelming sense worldwide of female sexual oppression and the spaces created inside Boy’s Love fandom remains a retreat separate from past and future, and way to expand past heteronormativity. 

_ “The interesting point of yaoi manga was that they inevitably concerned men/boys who had individuality [kosei].” -Yanagita Akiko  _

**Conclusion**

Boy’s Love and yaoi through it’s exploration of the feminized masculine and through defined erotic content has carved a space for women across the world to experience a new level of sexual liberation. Since its beginnings in 1960, Boy’s Love has provided a safe outlet for women to make self discoveries, explore sexual fantasy, as well as create connections with other people in fandoms.

Through the portrayal of the bishounen, Boy’s Love attempts to make a figure that breaks away from the binary and entices female viewers while removing guilt from the female experience. While the portrayal of the men in yaoi receive criticism for their unrealistic standards, they work expertly to provide a fantasy world for people to enjoy safely. 

Overall, Boy’s Love and yaoi has proved over time to be inherently feminist in nature and has allowed women around the world relief from the patriarchy. The characters, plot lines, and explicit content has given many freedom without shame and in return, sexual liberation.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Bibliography
> 
> “Editorial: Boys' Love Manga Special Section.” Taylor & Francis, March 27, 2013. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21504857.2013.793207.
> 
> FutureLearn. “Yaoi and Its Cultural Background.” FutureLearn. Keio University. Accessed December 10, 2019. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/intro-to-japanese-subculture/0/steps/23574.
> 
> Harada, Kazue. “Japanese Women's Science Fiction: Posthuman Bodies and the Representation of Gender.” Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Washington University, May 15, 2015. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1442&context=art_sci_etds.
> 
> Madill. “Men on the Market: Feminist Analysis of Age-Stratified Male–Male Romance in Boys' Love Manga.” White Rose Research Online. Intellect, December 1, 2016. http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/114106/.
> 
> “Yaoi Ronsō: Discussing Depictions of Male Homosexuality in Japanese Girls' Comics, Gay Comics and Gay Pornography.” Intersections. Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context . Accessed December 13, 2019. http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue12/lunsing.html#t16.
> 
> You can find me on twitter @ kitsuneitsuki :)


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